Shortly after Super Bowl LIII, a report emerged indicating the Raiders had their decision on a 2019 playing site. The Silver and Black have an agreement to play at the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park, according to NBC Bay Area (Twitter link).
But it appears there are still a few key hurdles to clear before the Raiders can play in another baseball stadium. The Raiders have not received approval from the NFL or the 49ers to make this move possible, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
The Raiders and the San Francisco Giants have not yet agreed to a deal, either, per NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic. The sides are discussing one, only the MLB team remains under the impression the Raiders are negotiating with two other sites. Levi’s Stadium and Oakland Coliseum are widely believed to be the Raiders’ other two 2019 options.
Despite playing their home games in Santa Clara, the 49ers could block the Raiders from playing at Oracle due to having territorial rights to San Francisco. The NBC Bay Area report indicated the NFL would announce the Raiders-to-Oracle move this week, the NFL could also nix this.
While the league did indeed conduct another site survey regarding the Raiders shifting from sharing a ballpark with the Oakland Athletics to doing so with the National League West club, barriers remain en route to this interesting future, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports notes. The NFL will need to sign off on the playing field at the San Francisco baseball stadium, while security upgrades will need to take place, in order to meet league standards, per La Canfora. Meetings regarding whether or not the NFL will agree to make those necessary enhancements will transpire this week.
Oracle Park was considered for a possible XFL team, NBC Sports Bay Area adds. The site hosted XFL games in 2001 and bowl games for more than a decade. The city of Oakland’s lawsuit against the Raiders prompted them to explore other options; the Silver and Black pulled a one-year lease extension — for more than double their 2018 payment — off the table following the lawsuit.
Super Bowl LIII represented the apparently soft deadline for the Raiders to finalize their decision, but the league does want this decision to be made before schedule meetings begin soon, JLC adds.
Well… Besides the ideas that the roster is a mess, the head coach occasionally flakes out and they have no place to play home games next year, most things are fine with the Raiders.
Haha you summed up my thoughts as I’m reading this article. Only good thing is the 3 first rd picks they have this year.
This might be the most important draft in franchise history.
Yeah but it’s the raiders, so you know all 3 picks will bust.
Uh yea, and they got rid of McKenzie (who knows how to draft) just in time! Whew!